Promotion

Alien prequel looks for female lead

I'm still not sure that the Alien prequels should have a female lead since the original franchise featured Sigourney Weaver's Ripley all through them, I think it's forcing the prequel to be like the franchise that it really shouldn't be, and is just a populist move to do the same again because it worked.

However the two Ridley Scott directed Alien prequels are doing just that, looking for a female lead, and the rumours have started floating around about who is up for the role. Surprisingly it's not just the same list from Gravity and there are a few lesser known Hollywood actresses here.

The Alien prequel films are going to concentrate on the story behind that ship that we see in the first Alien film, where the crew board and first discover the sea of alien eggs and also that huge pilot creature sitting in a chair with a mammoth hole burst in its chest. We know it's going to feature a female lead, and that the films will be in 3D.

Apparently, to cover the fact that they've only named three I guess, the production have been looking at quite a number of actresses, and I'm sure they will begin to be outed over time, but right now we are only getting these three names.

For me Mulligan doesn't cut it visually, she's too wispy, Cornish is closer and might be an interesting choice and I suspect her turn in Sucker Punch will convince all of that, and obviously Rapace could carry the role since she's carrying a lot of the attitude required already.

However I still debate the whole idea of a female lead for these prequels, and not because I don't want one, it just feels like they've realised the key attraction for the franchise is the strong female character of Ripley and that they want that to continue to keep the connection for audiences, even if it's a prequel to before her character was even born.

In a previous poll that I ran on the site, and I need to catch up with publishing the results for them, asking:

Should the Alien prequels feature a Ripley-esque female lead?

64% said No with the remaining 36% saying yes. Well that backs up what I was thinking, but the film is going ahead with the female lead regardless, trying to recapture as much of the original formula as possible. Let's hope it works, and if it does who do you want to see in that leading role?

See the new site poll which I've opened to your suggestions and I'll add more names as we hear them.